Is Your Business Leaking Energy and $$$?

by Dennis McMahon & Narelle Stratford  

It’s 3 months out from Christmas, and you need to ask, "Are the listings I've got now going to help me have a great Christmas?"

The answer is Yes, provided the following is true:

·         You are willing to let go of less than ideal Vendors

·         You persist in focusing your efforts on dollar productive activities that fill your pipeline with ideal Clients

Currently, and in the past, how much of your energy has been spent on non-motivated Vendors?  How much time are you spending on them?  And how much is your time worth in dollar terms?

When you expend time and energy on someone or something for little or no return, what is the real cost to you?  Let’s look at this with sample figures:

Let’s say you’re worth $150 an hour because you are a qualified, professional Real Estate Agent.

In the last week you’ve just spent 20 minutes at a time, say 4 times in the week, on trying to do something with a vendor who won’t shift on price, pay for marketing or change their marketing.  That totals 1hr 20 minutes and that means you’ve lost $170 with just that one vendor.  Times $170 x 3 for the total of non-motivated vendors on your books  (think Open Listings and Exclusives that have been hanging around for what seems like forever) and you’ve just lost $510 for the week.  Now calculate that for the month, and the year ($24,000+), and that’s big dollars to throw down the drain when you could be working with Ideal Clients.

Now think about this from the perspective of “your results come from that which you focus on…….”

You are not fully focussed on dollar productive activities, when you have less than ideal clients on your database.  How can you be?  Your brain can only manage a few things at a time and we can't keep all the information at the top of our mind and simultaneously focus on the priority issues of the day.  

This means that every vendor who is "not yet ready" is still drawing energy from you every time you think about him or her: whether you should have a price adjustment meeting or whether you should ring, or think of the times you discussed the situation with your boss, your partner or another colleague and look at the time as well as the energy you’ve just used up.  

Even when you are not consciously thinking of this vendor, your subconscious mind is still aware and still working on the problem – like a dripping tap wasting water with tiny drops that add up monumentally over time.  Every loose thought and unplanned action keeps you that little bit distracted from the major dollar productive activities you need to engage in.

Your distracted mind will destroy your energy levels, because you have to expend so much time and energy fighting bushfires, responding to unhappy Clients, and generally wasting your time fiddling around, that you have no "get up and go" left to search out your Ideal Clients.  Are you losing time, energy and dollars by having too many of the "wrong" Clients on your books?

Follow these simple steps to find out:

1.                  List ALL of your existing Clients on a page.
Include Date Listed, Listing Price, Recommended CMA Price, Marketing Funds provided by Client, Client Motivation Factors, Marketing Strategy (use a shorthand code for this), Days on market, Offers received, Strategic review dates and action taken.

2.                  Next, highlight your ‘Keep these Clients’.  These are the Clients where:
ü  Days on market are under 30
ü  the CMA and List Prices are within 10 - 15% of each other
ü  there is a real motivation known to you
ü  the Vendor has paid for some marketing and hopefully,
ü  offers received are within 20% of acceptable value. 

3.                  Review the rest.
Decide the Clients that you believe are salvageable.  Highlight them in another colour.  Organise a meeting with your Clients and take along a strategic plan that you feel will progress the sale.  If they agree, retain them.  You might say something like this:

“For a quick return on your advertising dollars your property needs to be marketed to it’s best advantage, and currently, the results are less than promising because of the (low/lack of) funds to do the job successfully.  You will need to put $x into this project and that will look like this when it’s spent (show examples) and should increase your results.”  

If not, cancel the Listing Agreement and let them know that you cannot provide them with the service they want, due to these reasons:

“The market, based on Comparative Market Analysis and buyer’s feedback, is saying that the most saleable price for your home is $x. You are telling me that you refuse to adjust your price to that level, so for this reason I will not be able to work with you at this time until you are ready to review your situation to help us both.” 

Or:

“Because you don’t have a deadline to move, it’s like having a moving goal post.  And that makes me wonder whether or not you really are motivated to sell.  I’d like to ask you some questions about your future plans (where are you moving to, why, what motivated the move, etc.)  if you don’t mind, so that you can get the result you are looking for.”

Be professional, calm and assertive - there is nothing personal in this, it's just business.

4.                  Meet with the Clients you have decided cannot be salvaged, and use the above reasons to cancel their Listing Agreement.

5.                  Energy UP!

You will be amazed at the new levels of energy you will gain by going through this process.  Just like shedding weight, or cleaning out cupboards, when we throw off old baggage we feel lighter and far more energetic.

6.          Dollar productive activities UP!

You will be able to hunt out Ideal Vendors, eagerly and with enthusiasm, because you know you have the time and the energy to devote to helping them, and the goal of a great Christmas to look forward to.

How can you tell who is your Ideal Client?  Email us for a short Free Report on the concept and description of ideal clients.  Better still, call one of our Sales Coaches and ask for a presentation on this very subject.

If this article has been useful, and you'd like to see how you can improve your business with this type of thinking, go to the Sales Champions website www.saleschampions.com.au and check out the Champions Sprint Programme.

Then click on Coach Directory and find your nearest Coach. Or email Narelle at narelle@saleschampions.com.au.

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